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<h1>FAQ</h1>

<h4>What is Own-Id?</h4>
<p><a href="http://www.own-id.com/">Own-Id</a> is a free service
that lets you use your own domain name (eg. id.example.com) as your <a
	href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenID">OpenId</a> Identifier. To
set up your own id, visit the <a href="http://www.own-id.com/">Own-Id
homepage</a>.</p>

<h4>Why is it a good idea to have my own domain name as an OpenId?
</h4>
<p>The advantages are similar to those for using your own domain in
an email address:</p>
<ul>
	<li>You can change provider while keeping the same OpenId.</li>
	<li>It looks neat.</li>
</ul>

<h4>I've made my domain name point to www.own-id.com, but it's
still not working!</h4>
<p>Be sure that you've added a CNAME record in the DNS to point your
domain to www.own-id.com. <a
	href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_redirection">Domain
forwarding</a> won't work.</p>

<h4>How do I change the OpenId identifier that my custom domain
delegates to?</h4>

<p>If you've set up your own domain name with Own-Id, you can change
the OpenId identifier it delegates to by following these steps:</p>
<ol>
	<li>Sign in to your current OpenId provider eg. www.myopenid.com.</li>
	<li>Visit the custom domain you've set up (eg. id.example.com)</li>
	<li>Click the 'Sign In' button, which should authenticate you with
	your current provider, then return you to your custom domain page.</li>
	<li>In the OP-Local Identifier box, type in the identifier from
	your new OpenId provider, and click the 'Update' button.</li>
	<li>That's it!</li>
</ol>

<h4>How does Own-Id work?</h4>

<p>Own-Id follows the <a
	href="http://openid.net/specs/openid-authentication-2_0-12.html">OpenId
2.0 specification</a> to allow you to set up your own domain name as an
OpenId Identifier. Say you own the domain name example.com, and you want
to use id.example.com as your OpenId identifier. You create a CNAME DNS
record pointing id.example.com to www.own-id.com, then you visit
http://id.example.com/. This comes up with a page asking you to enter an
OpenId which you can get from a <a href="http://openid.net/get/">provider</a>.
Own-Id stores in a database the association between your domain name and
the OpenId identifier. Then when you log in to a website using
id.example.com, the website does a lookup behind the scenes according to
the OpenId specification and uses the Identifier you got from the
provider.</p>

<h4>What are the privacy issues?</h4>

<p>Since Own-Id only stores information which is public anyway (your
domain name, OpenId that it's delegated to, OpenId server), there isn't
really a privacy issue. If you can think of a privacy concern, please
let us know.</p>

<h4>What's the worst that could happen to Own-Id?</h4>

<h5>Permanent Failure</h5>

<p>Let's say that Own-Id suddenly disappeared, never to return. As a
user, this would mean that you'd be unable to use your custom id (eg.
id.example.com). What could you do? Here are your options in order of
increasing hassle:</p>
<ul>
	<li>Point your domain name (eg. id.example.com) to a rival service
	to Own-Id.</li>
	<li>Point your domain name to an html page that you can edit, and
	then put in a few lines conforming to the spec to delegate your id.</li>
</ul>

<p>I should say that we've no intention of going out of business,
and Own-Id is a highly reliable service.</p>

<h5>Turning Evil</h5>

<p>If Own-Id turned evil, what could they do? I can't think of
anything we could do that would be any worse than the service simply not
working. If you can think of anything, let me know. Our project is
released as free software, so feel free to inspect the source code.</p>

<h4>Why can't I just set up the delegation by editing the HTML on
my own website?</h4>

<p>I think the easiest method of delegating your OpenId depends on
several factors:</p>
<ol>
	<li>Do you have an editable web page under your own domain name?</li>
	<li>Are you comfortable with basic HTML?</li>
	<li>Do you know what to add to the html?</li>
	<li>Do you know the URL of your OpenId server?</li>
	<li>How easy is it to add a CNAME record to your DNS?</li>
</ol>

<p>If the answers 1-4 are 'yes' and the answer to number 5 is 'not
very', then it's easiest to go ahead and edit the html. If your DNS
hosting company has an easy web interface (like GoDaddy) and you're a
bit shaky on the other questions, then I'd suggest that www.own-id.com
is for you.</p>

<h4>Feedback</h4>

<p>Please <a href="mailto:tlocke@tlocke.org.uk">send me</a> any
comments and questions.</p>


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